Sanctuary
by Adins
Summary: Chaos is sealed within the Galaxy Cauldron and the Senshi settle into a normal life, but when a sinister foe wielding a mysterious "soul stone" threatens their hard-won peace the Senshi must decide not only the fate of Earth, but of Sanctuary as well.
1. Introduction

**INTRODUCTION**

Welcome to _**Sanctuary**_, my attempt to take two of my favorite fandoms which have no business being in the same room together and mash them up into something complimentary and hopefully entertaining. This is a crossover between _Sailor Moon_ and, of all things, the Blizzard Entertainment video game series _Diablo_.

This story is a long time coming even though it might seem like an old-fashioned bandwagon-jump considering that Diablo 3 was just released a few weeks ago. The truth is I wrote this story almost a decade ago. See, way back in the day your old pal Adins used to write under a different moniker which I will tastefully decline to reveal. My first foray into Sailor Moon fan fiction was an epic tale of dub-flavored dialogue, contrived characterization, obvious plot twists, and even an original character that bore the same name as a certain author who doesn't go by that name anymore.

Yes, I was _that_ guy. You've all been there. Moving on.

The story was juvenile and unpolished and a very obvious child of the DiC dub, but at a certain point in the plot I decided to do something that I thought was genuinely neat. The villain character, Mary Sue, in a desperate attempt to destroy the Sailor… _yeesh_… Scouts, decided to open a vacuum-sucking portal to an alternate dimension where the Senshi would be trapped and likely not survive. That alternate dimension was the world of Sanctuary where the Diablo games take place. At the time I wasn't aware that fandom called such a thing a "crossover".

At the time, Diablo 2 had just been released and so I placed the Senshi in the plot of that game and for about four or five chapters of my fic I told the story of Diablo 2 through their eyes with the promise that if they were able to help save the world of Sanctuary from the forces of Hell, they would be shown how to get home. When they finally did return to Earth they brought back some of the trademark magic spells of the Diablo games with them that they adapted into their new Senshi attacks. (Mercury Frost Nova, for example) I thought that was a fun send up.

Alas, I never finished my epic because it just got bogged down in contrivances. My Mary Sue character ended up having a daughter with Sailor Mars and… you know what? We're not going to talk about it anymore.

Ten years later here we are and after revisiting one of my all-time favorite gaming landscapes in Diablo 3 I've decided to polish off the premise from my first adolescent attempt and give it another go. It should be noted that I'm aiming this more at the Sailor Moon fan base since the Senshi are the main characters. For this outing, I'm basing the story in the Anime continuity. If you fall into that category but you don't know anything about the Diablo series you'll get a fair introduction. For those of you that are already familiar with the material, you'll find plenty of nods to the various games and fictions.

I'm going shut up now because the more I try to explain myself and legitimize what I'm doing the more distracted I'm going to get and we don't want that.

Hope you dig it.

-A


	2. Prologue

_Take heed and bear witness to the truths that lie herein, for they are the last legacy of the Horadrim._

**Sanctuary**

By Adins

Evening at the Kimura household on the outskirts of Azabu-Juuban proceeded much as it had for the last six years. Yoshiro, a nondescript salaryman and loving if sometimes distant father, sat expressionless at the dining room table as he scanned the daily news through his thick-rimmed glasses. Outside a dog was barking staccato nonsense for the whole neighborhood to hear. Mio, hair tied up and sporting a fashionably stained apron, spun around the kitchen making mealtime magic for her husband of ten years and their six-year-old daughter.

"Kaya!" the young girl shouted warningly through the glass. She was perched on her knees on the edge of a bay window facing the front yard of their small suburban home. Outside the family dog, Kaya, kept barking louder and longer.

"Keiko, get down from there before you fall and hurt yourself!" Mio coaxed from the kitchen.

Keiko largely ignored the warning and began lightly rapping the palm of her hand against the window. Yoshiro glanced over the edge of his laptop with one eye and dismissed the disruption. The dog kept barking.

"We really ought to look into a trainer." Mio suggested as she wiped her miso stained hands on her apron and began scouring a heavy iron pan.

"Kaya is still very young." Yoshiro assured her, "She's just a puppy."

"She's a very loud puppy." Mio frowned as the dog kept howling his head off.

"She'll grow out of it." Her husband assumed largely out of ignorance.

"Kaya, no!" Keiko shouted again and her rapping on the window suddenly became louder and more frantic.

"Keiko, what on earth—" Mio began to shuffle across the room, frying pan in hand, when a gut-wrenching howl halted her mid-stride. Keiko let out a juvenile screech of terror and Yoshiro leapt to his feet and bounded towards the door.

Upon opening the door he found Kaya whimpering and shaking on the front stoop with a thick trail of blood leading back to the middle of the yard where she had been tied up. Mio rushed out beside him and gagged at the sight.

"_Kuso_…" Yoshiro cursed softly and pulled the wounded animal into his lap, "Someone… cut off her tail!"

"Is Kaya ok?" Keiko asked sadly trying to poke her head out through the front door.

Mio eased her back inside and soothed, "Kaya just had a little accident."

"What about the red man?" Keiko asked innocently.

"The… what?" Mio stuttered.

"Mio." Yoshiro's voice from behind was cold and authoritative, "Close the door."

Mio turned slowly and caught a glimpse of something over her shoulder that she could not have expected. There was a bright flash of blue light and a pulse of static electricity. For a brief moment she saw the outline of something near the hedge row which bordered their property: a hole; a hole in the air itself, like an opening in the side of a wall. Her immediate reaction was to push Keiko inside the house and slam the door shut in one quick motion. Her grip tightened around the handle of the frying pan which hadn't left her grasp. Yoshiro placed himself defensively between her, his daughter, and his home.

A creature scuttled its way out from the hedge bushes. It was small in stature; only standing three feet tall erect, but it slouched as it meandered its way curiously around the yard. Its skin was blood red and there was a small shock of black hair jutting in a ponytail atop an angular, rat-like head with long pointed ears and what appeared to be a pair of goat-like horns protruding out of its forehead and sweeping back sharply to points. The impish creature grunted and grumbled in a high-pitched voice as it stalked the yard, gnawing on the severed tail of the family dog as it did so.

"What is it?" Mio whispered a gasp into her husband's ear.

Yoshiro didn't answer. He kept his eyes fixed on the creature which, apparently, hadn't registered their presence yet. It appeared to be looking for something; possibly another tail to chew on, but more than likely a weapon. One of the creature's clawed hands was empty and flapping idly at its side, but the other was holding onto what looked like a crude shield lashed to its arm with uncomfortable-looking leather straps. The shield was vaguely round and looked to be made of hastily-beaten bronze.

"Yoshi—" Mio started.

"Shh!" Yoshiro hissed.

The pitch of his voice was enough. The creature stiffened and jerked towards the pair scanning them intently with its large, bulging eyes. It didn't move, but its posture suggested defensiveness. Yoshiro swallowed and forced his anxiety down with it and slowly moved forward. His wife, wide-eyed in silent protest, shook her head vigorously in the negative. Yoshiro hadn't made it more than three steps when the creature suddenly sprinted forward and stopped mere inches away from the man's feet.

"No!" Mio shrieked and jumped up.

"Mio, no!" Yoshiro warned her as he observed the diminutive creature begin sniffing the air around his pant legs and taking quick, curious glances up at the man's face. He almost cracked a smile had it not been for the tail of their dog still bobbing out the side of the creature's mouth.

"I'm calling the police." Mio announced and moved to open the front door of their home to retrieve a phone.

"Mio, hold on." Yoshiro argued and knelt down. The red creature, startled, leapt backwards the full length of its body, "He seems harmless enough. Maybe he's just hungry."

"Yoshi, stop!" Mio warned as her husband waved with his hand, beckoning the creature toward him.

The red imp shuffled forward again, groaning in its odd way and dodging its head this way and that, trying to make sense of the man's gesture. Yoshiro did offer a single, amused chuckle when the sparkle of his wedding band in the setting sun seemed to excite the creature. It was then that Kaya, the injured family dog, let out a bellowing yelp to warn her master, but it was too late. The little red creature lunged at Yoshi's outstretched hand and fangs gleaming in the twilight tore Yoshiro's fore and middle fingers away (wedding band and all) leaving ragged, bloody stumps behind.

Mio screamed immediately for help as Yoshio jumped and staggered, clutched his wounded hand and cursed in pain. The creature, greedy and unsatisfied, made a powerful leap for something so small and its momentum, and Yoshiro's surprise, caused the man to fall backward onto the lawn as it latched onto him. With his one good hand he tried to pry the creature off while its mangled twin flapped helplessly in the grass. The imp tore into him with razor sharp claws as blood immediately stained his white dress shirt from collar to cuff. Yoshiro cried out and clawed as best he could. He felt the flesh of his nose tear away; he saw red both eyes and then only one. He saw the other disappear into the creature's fanged maw.

Just as he had resigned himself to a slow death by mutilation he heard a sickening crack above him. Mio stood over him, frying pan in hand and swinging. What flesh was left in the creature's claws was torn away as it flew off of him and tumbled into the grass near his sprawled feet. Mio wasted no time as she advanced on the imp. It staggered to its bony feet and grunted its high-pitched whine as the frying pan came at it again. It tried to block with its crude shield, but it was ripped away. Startled, it discarded its only means of defense and defiantly spat what sounded like a word:

"_RAKANISHU!"_

Mio wound up again and solidly connected the thick edge of the frying pan with the creature's cranium. One of its horns cracked and snapped off and specks of black, brackish blood splattered her apron. The creature fell limply to the ground and convulsed once before clawing madly at the air above it. Mio fell to her knees (and would have been straddling the creature had it been larger) and furiously smashed her frying pan over and over into the beast's skull until she was sure it would never move again or harm another member of her family; especially not her impressionable six-year-old daughter innocently watching her mother beat the life out of something from the bay window of the Kimura home.


	3. Chapter One

**ONE**

Ami strode confidently out of one of the many identically sterile exam rooms on the ground floor of Minato-ku Municipal Hospital. It was only her second patient this morning and already she was expecting the trend to continue: it was summer, but an unseasonable weekend of cooler weather seemed to sap the strength out of just about everyone in her little part of the city and a virulent Cold was running rampant. Truth be told, her throat felt a little scratchy, but as she told herself time and time again, doctors weren't allowed to get sick.

Most physicians of her standing, of which there were few considering her youth, were a bit precious when it came to clinic duty and usually managed to weasel their way out of it, but for her part Ami found the change of pace, not to mention significantly lessened severity of the cases, refreshing. For as talented as she was at saving lives, she was less so when it came to delivering the news that a life was beyond her power to save.

She sighed inwardly and continued walking. The evening was winding down; she was already working past her usual quitting time, but she didn't mind. As usual she had no after-work plans and her Spartan apartment was somehow less comfortable and homey than the sterile hospital. A sudden bustle in an adjacent hallway called her attention and she saw two orderlies pushing a gurney swiftly towards her with several nurses racing behind. It wasn't her patient and she certainly wouldn't insinuate herself into another doctor's business, but when she caught sight of the bloodied man moaning on the bed, one eye torn out, missing fingers and babbling about a demon attacking him she spun around and went to chase them down.

A hand on her shoulder stopped her and she whirled around again to face one of her colleagues, "Ami?"

"Guiro-san!" Ami was surprised by the appearance of Guiro Umino, not a medical colleague, but head of the hospital's IT department and as such, a reliable source of information on anything and everything attached to a computer; including patient's charts.

"That man they just wheeled by us." Ami asked him softly so as not to be overheard, "What happened to him?"

"He was attacked in his front yard by… something." Umino's expression was confused and a bit worried, but also strangely excited.

"Something?" Ami prodded.

"Some sort of animal. His wife fought it off with a frying pan." Umino told her and almost laughed, "That's why I was coming to find you."

"Why?"

"She threw what was left of it into a pillowcase and brought it along." Umino explained.

"What do you—" Ami stuttered slightly, "You mean whatever attacked him?" Umino nodded, "She brought it _here_?"

"They have it in one of the quarantine rooms in the lower level." Umino informed her, "It's got everyone worked up. Apparently it's like nothing anyone's ever seen before."

"How so?" Ami inquired further.

"I haven't been able to see it myself." Umino apologized, "But everyone I talked to says it looks like an alien."

"An alien?" Ami had to sound dismissive, but her heart was pounding.

"They're taking it very seriously." Umino added, "The police were already here and apparently they're contacting Naichō."

"Naichō?" Ami gasped. If the country's shadowy intelligence agency was involved there was no telling what this could escalate into…

"Are the police still here?" Ami asked hesitantly.

"Yes, they're standing guard outside the room." Umino told her and then proudly tapped the badge attached to the retractable lanyard on his belt, "But I have access to every room in the building, guards or not."

"And they'll just let you walk past them?" Ami challenged.

"There are all kinds of electronic monitoring devices in the quarantine rooms." Umino explained slyly, "And I can cause any one of them to malfunction remotely, but of course I'll have to go into the room to fix them."

"And what about me?" Ami asked.

"You'll be my lovely assistant." Umino replied without pretense.

She laughed at that and placed a hand on the young man's shoulder, "You're a good friend to have, Guiro-san."

"Thanks." He blushed.

"I have my phone on." Ami presented her cell to him, "Text me when you're ready."

"Okay." He agreed and scurried off to make whatever preparations he had to make.

Ami pressed a few buttons and put the phone up to her ear for a male greeting, "Moshi moshi?"

"Mamoru-san?" she asked and her voice cracked slightly.

"Ami?" Mamoru's protective voice picked up on her trepidation immediately, "What's wrong?"

"Can you come to the hospital?" Ami requested, "I need your help."

"I'll be right there." He assured her and ended the call.

Mamoru needed to further impetus. It was in his nature to help regardless of the trouble; doubly so if it was a friend in need, even more so when it was one of the noble planetary _senshi_ asking the guardian and future King of the Earth for aid. Ami snapped her phone closed and rested the cold bit of plastic under her chin.

She was nervous. She was always nervous at this time of the year, but the coincidence of a man, mangled and moaning about death and demons set her completely on edge. She scarcely mentioned it to her friends, but the other _senshi_ knew what she was going through. Usagi in her usual carefree way didn't dwell on the past, but those images were seared into her memory whether she would admit it or not. Rei, on the other hand, Ami's spiritual center and closest confidant, knew all too well what it meant relive a moment time and time again. It was years ago… god, could it be decades now?

This day, June 6th, was the anniversary of the _senshi's_ first true battle. Before then they had been simple fourteen-year-old school girls who happened to be gifted with supernatural powers. Even Ami, gifted and intelligent as she was at the time, treated the prospect of being a secret, magical superhero as a novelty; something to do after school with two other girls who happened to be your best friends; a game of super-powered tag, almost…

But that day was different. That day the monster (all so easily "moon dusted" before) became a man. It wasn't a challenge (for which she was constantly annoyed) to recall his silhouette standing atop the control tower of the Narita International Airport. She remembered the lightning in the sky, the booming, enveloping sound of his mad laughter, and the strange peeling noise that the huge tires of a jumbo jet made as it barreled down the runway, mindless, intent on flattening you under its tremendous bulk.

Ami shivered and shook the images away. That was the day she understood what it meant to be a _senshi_; when she realized that her life until that point was over. She held no resentment and certainly no regret, but she was moody all the same and she would always be nervous on this day. The _senshi_ had defeated _Him_, the first of an unsavory number of enemies they would face together, but a defeat was not tantamount to destruction. Ami was the first to voice the concern that their enemy's fate was unclear and that he could return to menace them again, but as the agents of the Dark Kingdom fell one by one and was finally routed that possibility seemed more and more distant.

But it stayed with her all these years as the first of anything might; the first kiss, the first surgery; the first magic-slinging agent of chaos bent on destroying you and your world… Ami shook the images away again, this time physically shaking her head. Of course she knew better, being the youngest physician in Tokyo and all, but she thought maybe she could shake the thoughts loose and bury them under some other, more pleasant gray matter. She glanced down at her phone. Umino still hadn't sent her that telling text. She would need to see this creature and verify that it was just some misshapen, possibly rabid animal that everyone was mistaking for an alien. It would be some sort of malnourished carnivore, perhaps a specimen from a far-off corner of the world loose from a laboratory or a zoo. Certainly it couldn't be an alien, or worse… a youma.

She closed her eyes tight. _Oh _please_, don't let it be a youma…_

Twenty minutes and an illegal entry later, courtesy of the tech-savvy and surprisingly persuasive Guiro Umino, Dr. Mizuno and her longtime associate, friend, and monarch, Dr. Chiba, were standing over an examination table in the quarantine wing of the hospital.

"Well…" Mamoru offered after his first cursory inspection of the creature's corpse, "It's not a youma."

Ami didn't allow herself to actually sigh in relief, but she thought about it and instead a pleasant shiver of relief ran down the length of her body. Mamoru prodded the innards of the tiny red creature and pulled back a flap of flesh to reveal something startling.

"What is that?" Ami gasped.

Mamoru discovered a small gland (punctured by the frying-pan blows that killed the creature) secreting a bright blue liquid. It was such a stark contrast to the usual pink and red viscera that made up the interior of most living creatures that for a moment he just stared at it in wide-eyed wonder. _Blue!_ He thought astonished. _As blue as Ami's hair!_

"Mamoru?" Ami's voice snapped him back into reality.

"Oh." He clumsily began, "I have no idea." He scratched his raven head for effect, "It could be some sort of vestigial structure. It doesn't seem to be attached to any major organ system."

"Speaking of organ systems." Ami said and carefully aimed one of the white-hot lights above the table into the creature's splayed abdomen, "My goodness... Mamoru, do you see this?"

"Yes." Mamoru mumbled as he processed what he saw. Or rather didn't see. "There doesn't seem to be any sort of appreciable digestive system."

"The esophagus seems to be lined with some sort of retractable cilia." Ami said as she ran a gloved finger along the ribbed inside of the creature's throat. A sudden prick of pain shot through her finger and she yelped in surprise.

"What's wrong?" Mamoru immediately reacted.

"It's _sharp_!" Ami gasped, "Whatever it eats is probably shredded on its way down its throat."

"Where does it go from there?" Mamoru wondered and looked over the strange, red, long-toothed, horned specimen again.

"Perhaps that blue liquid is some sort of digestive agent." Ami suggested, "Its food might be broken down and absorbed directly." She wiped a sleeve across her brow, the lights causing her to sweat, "Can you imagine such an efficient metabolic process? I'd wager there is no waste produced at all."

"There's nothing like this on earth that I'm aware of." Mamoru was thoughtful and distant as usual.

"The woman who brought it here thought it might be an alien." Ami told him trying again not to sound anxious and failing.

Mamoru sighed heavily, "If that's the case then we should probably let Haruka and Michiru—"

"No!" Ami surprised him with a start, "I mean… we shouldn't drag them into this."

"Ami, this creature could be a sign of a new threat." Mamoru warned her in his kingly way, "If it came from beyond our solar system then it's the domain of the Outer Senshi." He shook his head, "They made it very clear that they don't intend to shirk their duties even after everything that happened with Galaxia." He offered a placatory smile, "And I really don't want to have to mediate another "discussion" between Haruka and Usako about it."

Ami chirped a bit of laughter and that, but stated, "I know what they've said, but they have their hands full with Hotaru. I just want them…" she trailed off slightly, inwardly scolding her less than overt nature, "You know."

"You want them to have a normal life?" Mamoru didn't so much ask as infer.

Ami didn't have to answer. It was what she wanted. It was what all the Senshi wanted for all the _other_ Senshi. The notion had been dashed time and time again until they decided it was best to not bring it up anymore, but more than anything the Senshi desired a bit of normalcy for themselves and their comrades.

"Okay." Mamoru relented, "We'll keep this to ourselves for now."

Ami wordlessly stated her thanks with a nod and turned back to the operating table. What she saw made her blood run cold. The creature was gone, leaving only a pool of that strange, bright blue liquid where it once lay.

"What the…" Mamoru began to speak.

A sudden static charge silenced him and in the middle of the room a strange blotch on reality began to form. It looked like a stain; a black hole ripped straight into the middle of the room about eight feet tall by four feet wide, but with no depth or thickness. The black opening formed a solid band of shimmering blue-white energy around its horizon and seemed to hum with an otherworldly cadence. Mamoru and Ami both turned away from the strange phenomenon and took a step backward while calling on the power that lay dormant within them for many months. Sailor Mercury and Tuxedo Mask turned back toward the spiraling vortex.

"Amazing." Mercury gasped in awe.

"What is it?" Tuxedo Mask asked, less awestruck.

"It's a portal." Mercury was quick to judge thanks to her computer, handily disguised these days as a smart phone bearing a stylish blue caduceus-inscribed case, "A stable conduit through space-time. A compact Einstein-Rosen bridge."

"Where does it lead?" Mask asked anxiously.

"I can't say for sure." The Senshi of wisdom admitted, "But from the calculations I can make at the event horizon, somewhere within the city limits." Her computer flashed and indicated an incoming phone call, "It's Usagi-chan."

"That's strangely coincidental." The masked man muttered.

"Wait. Another call." Ami dragged her finger across the screen, "Rei-chan." Followed quickly by another, "Mako-chan. And now Minako-chan."

"Ami." Mamoru spoke plainly, "I get the feeling we're not the only ones standing in front of one of these portals."

"Who should I answer?" Ami juggled the four incoming calls.

"No one." Was Mamoru's reply and he stepped between Sailor Mercury and the swirling blue portal.

"You're not thinking of going through it, are you?" Sailor Mercury was astounded by the man's recklessness.

"This is an invitation." Tuxedo Mask surmised.

"This is _dangerous_ is what it is!" Mercury countered, "We have no way of knowing what's on the other side!"

"I'd wager that if the person who created this portal wanted to put us in danger they would be much more direct about it." Tuxedo Mask mused in his occasionally dark, humorless way, "Like blowing up the building we're standing in."

"What?"

Tuxedo Mask reached out a white gloved hand and thrust it into the portal. There was neither ripple nor disturbance to note. He felt a slight tingling in his hand and pulled it back, but viewed no ill effects. Satisfied that the portal wasn't going to tear him apart, he ducked his head instinctively and walked in.

"Mamoru-san!" Ami gasped as the portal whisked him away.

The room fell into silence save for the portal's eerie hum. Sailor Mercury was so in awe of the sight and so seized by the terror of what might have just happened to one of her closest companions that she almost missed her computer screen announcing yet a fifth incoming phone call, this one from Chiba Mamoru. She snapped to and tapped the screen.

"Mamoru-san?" she almost shouted.

"Ami, tell the girls to transform before they walk through the portals." Mamoru's voice was ominous, "I found our missing creature."

"Why do they need to transform?" Ami wondered oblivious to Mamoru's surroundings.

"Because it's not alone." Mamoru replied and abruptly ended the call.

Ami made the announcement through a swift series of keystrokes and when she was finished the tiny computer vanished from her hand. She faced the tall, glowing portal once again and studied it intently. A two-dimensional doorway that somehow sliced a path through four dimensions. She recalled how much trouble she had in her first attempt many years ago at understanding the concept of tesseracts and theoretical dimensions and her brain began to tighten as it had back then.

"At least it's not a youma." She said to reassure herself of the current situation. It did little to assuage her nerves.

With a deep breath and deep trust in the theory of special relativity, she stepped through the portal.


	4. Chapter Two

**TWO**

On the other end of the portal Ami came face-to-face with her sisters-in-arms. All of them were together for the first time in what felt like years, at least in this capacity. The five of them were now leading their own lives as young adults, but they were never far from one another. The Senshi, however, had not converged transformed as a team since the defeat of Galaxia. The sudden reunion was jarring, if not altogether unpleasant.

"Okay." Sailor Jupiter spoke first, "Who wants to take a stab at what's happening here?"

"I was sitting at home trying to catch up on all the stuff backing up on my TiVo when that blue portal just popped up in my living room." Sailor Venus explained.

"Mamoru-san and I were examining the remains of a strange creature that attacked a family in the suburbs this evening." Ami explained.

"A youma?" Sailor Mars asked almost expectantly.

"No, something much different." Tuxedo Mask answered and motioned to the creature that he had discovered on the other side of the portal.

The small red creature was laying on the ground in their midst. Sailor Mercury once again retrieved her small computer and the pale light from its monitor illuminated the dark space just enough for them to see the creature encased inside a transparent crystal that covered its entire body. As they looked on amazed, they saw that the imp's wounds were seeping with that strange blue humour while slowly closing up and, apparently, mending. She shone her light around to reveal that they were standing on a grate-patterned metal walkway. The air carried the acrid smell of metal and heavy industry.

"We must be in a factory."Sailor Moon offered.

"A warehouse." Tuxedo Mask clarified, "Look at this."

The Senshi moved towards Tuxedo Mask and what they saw shocked them into silence. Mercury's computer-light barely threw of enough illumination to allow them to see rows and rows of crystals identical to the one they just found lined up along either side of the steel catwalks.

They spied several crystals that contained creatures similar to the small, red imp that Ami and Mamoru had so recently studied, but with skins of varying pigmentations from blood red to ice blue to ash black. Another crystal contained a shocking specimen with the head of goat atop the fur-lined torso of a man standing upright on bowed legs terminating in cloven hooves. A huge axe was grasped in its gray-skinned hands. Still another crystal contained what appeared to be no more than a human skeleton girt in torn rags, but dragging a rusty straight sword in one hand and a shield in the other.

"Do you like my menagerie, Sailor Senshi?" A familiar, if somewhat timeworn voice asked from the darkness above the small group.

Booted footsteps squeaked against the steel lattice of the catwalk's floors and the shape of a man standing on the level above them took form in the pale glow of Sailor Mercury's tiny computer monitor. They heard the heavy clack of a mechanical switch being thrown and rows of industrial powered lights flickered noisily to life to illuminate the cavernous repository. Now that they saw it in full light, it was almost twice as large as they originally reckoned and filled to the brim with crystal-captives.

"I had intended to bring these creatures back to the Dark Kingdom with me." He continued, the light spilling over him and revealing steel blue eyes no less piercing than when the Senshi first saw them, "I would have presented them to Queen Beryl to breed her a new army; an unstoppable demonic horde."

He took his time descending the stairs to the metal platform where the Senshi stood facing him, "Imagine my surprise when I found the Dark Kingdom destroyed." He cast his frozen glance directly at Sailor Moon, "And Queen Beryl dead."

"Jadeite." Sailor Moon allowed his name to slowly seep through her gritting teeth. It had been so long that she nearly stumbled on the pronunciation. She didn't say it in greeting or to show any sort of recognition; she said it as a way to help her focus and clear any doubt that what she was seeing was real.

Jadeite only smirked for a reply. In that moment Sailor Moon recalled every sideways smile and over-the-shoulder glance the man in front of her ever gave. He looked different against the pictures in her memory: his hair was longer, down almost to his shoulders, and he was sporting a beard of rough stubble likely from neglect and not vanity. His boots were familiar, part of his Dark Kingdom regalia, but he no longer wore the slacks or single-stud jacket. His pants were dark leather and laced along the sides with rawhide strips. He wore a dark brown vest with the collar turned outward to reveal fur lining. On top of that he wore a patched black leather jacket with laced-on sleeves. Two belts were buckled across his waist and slung low on his hips holding two blades: a short, straight off-hand dagger by the look of the first, and a long single-edged scimitar for the other.

"Did you get lost on your way to the Reconnaissance Faire?" Venus posed her first garbled query upon seeing Jadeite's decidedly old-fashioned attire.

"Renaissance." Mercury corrected under her perturbed breath.

Sailor Moon, used to Jadeite's egotism, braced for the condescending reprisal. He only offered a slight, amused grin in reply.

"What kind of trick is this?" Sailor Mars was not in a joking mood, as per usual, "You should be dead."

"Dead?" Jadeite chuckled in a single syllable, "Damaged, perhaps. A bit dinged even, but—"

"Defeated." Mamoru cut him off with an icy word and an icier glance.

"Defeated." Jadeite surprised them by agreeing with the assessment, "And then, finally, discarded."

"Discarded?" Sailor Moon asked puzzled.

"Cast out." Jadeite clarified.

"You mean you were exiled?" Mercury assumed.

"Not just exiled, Mizuno-san." Jadeite spoke and Ami's blood ran cold at the sound of her name, her _real_ name, on his lips, "Imprisoned and cast off into nothing."

"You know who we are?" Sailor Mars asked evenly, though apprehension showed through in some slight degree.

"Oh yes." Jadeite answered shockingly, "I thought that if I learned your true identities I might still have a card to play with Queen Beryl, even if our final battle went ill for me."

"Which it did." Mamoru reminded him yet again.

"Yes, it did." Jadeite agreed and clapped his hands together in front of him, "I've come to terms with that." He narrowed his gaze at his old opponent, "Have _you?_"

Mamoru didn't answer. He simply returned Jadeite's angry glare in turn as their adversary continued, "Eternal Sleep she called her favorite torture." Jadeite elaborated, "Only, it wasn't sleep. It was a waking nightmare."

"Imagine your whole body being paralyzed; unable to move, unable to breathe." He shuffled back and forth as he spoke, recalling the sensations and reassuring himself of his current mobility, "Only imagine if your muscles still ached from atrophy, your lungs still burned for oxygen, your eyes screamed from dryness, and your stomach tried to digest itself for nourishment." Jadeite wrung his hands together and shivered on the catwalk, "That was what awaited me when I returned, prostrate and pleading for my life."

"Do you expect us to feel pity for you?" Sailor Jupiter asked brusquely, "After all the times you attacked innocent people and scarred them for life?"

"No, I don't expect you to pity me." Jadeite spat back, annoyed, "I expect you to understand what happened to me." He looked back at the three Senshi he recognized, "I want you to know that I was sealed inside a huge crystal, very much alive and aware and in agony, and sent to drift in an empty void for all eternity." He glowered at the Senshi, "I was locked, immobile, in emptiness with the tire-shaped scars of a jumbo jet bleeding on my back and piss burning in my bladder."

Sailor Jupiter winced at that statement and Jadeite jumped on it, "Not so easy to stomach when you know the grisly details, is it?" Jadeite smiled viciously and related, "There was only infinite blackness around me as far as my red, sandpaper eyes could tell. I was alone out there. _Maddeningly_ alone."

"Well you're here now, Jadeite." Sailor Mars cut to the quick, "What do you want?"

"I want my _life_ back." Jadeite demanded with unnerving finality.

"Your life?" Sailor Moon was confused by that.

"I want the life I was denied." Jadeite elaborated, "I want the life that I deserve."

"And what do _you_ deserve?" Mamoru challenged him.

"More than you could have ever offered me." Jadeite assaulted him, "Long ago I followed a man who promised me peace, prosperity, and a kingdom that would endure forever." Jadeite, in that moment, looked genuinely sad, "In the end he betrayed us and left the kingdom to the ruin of war."

He turned his glance to Sailor Moon, "After that I followed a creature, Metalia, who promised me revenge." He blinked. Once, "She led me to the gates of the Moon where I found not revenge, but a Crystal. A crystal that cursed me and imprisoned me for a thousand years under a magical seal."

He then turned his attention to Sailor Mars, "And then finally I awoke in a new world. I followed a Queen who promised me power and a kingdom of my own if I would find her that hateful Silver Crystal." Jadeite stiffened, "And instead I was given Eternal Sleep."

"It's poetic justice." Venus subscribed.

"_**JUSTICE?**_" Jadeite thundered and his voice echoed mechanically through the steel structure. Before the last reverberations cleared he continued, "I fought for justice once and it abandoned me. I fought for kings and queens who treated me like a pawn."

"I understand what you're going through, Jadeite, but Queen Beryl is gone now. So is Metalia." Sailor Moon immediately seized her opportunity, "And justice does not abandon people. You just weren't looking in the right place."

"Tsukino Usagi." Jadeite addressed her civilly, "You have seen and done many extraordinary things in your short life, but what makes you think you understand _anything_ whatsoever about my plight?"

"Because I've seen men far worse than you come back from the darkness." She said with a smile.

"And what would you have me do?" He asked bemused, "Throw my lot in with you? Use my powers for the good of all mankind?" He turned a sly eye to Mamoru, "Maybe start wearing a tuxedo of my own and follow the Sailor Senshi all over the world fighting evil in the name of love and justice?"

"Why not?" Usagi posed the simple, anxious question.

Jadeite laughed. It might have been a genuine laugh, but she couldn't tell. Truthfully, she didn't know if she wanted it to be a real laugh because that might have confirmed the final shred of humanity he was about to discard before their eyes.

"A charming offer, but I decline." Jadeite spoke and his voice became stiff.

"Jadeite if you would just—" Usagi was violently cut off.

"If I would follow you?" Jadeite guessed correctly, "You, Sailor Moon, paragon of humanity, if I would just follow your example everything would be okay?"

"I'm not asking you to follow me." Sailor Moon asserted.

"But you are." Jadeite thwarted her, "Dress it up however you like, Senshi, the end product is the same: you want everyone to be like you. You want everyone to be selfless and kind, smiling all the time and giving of themselves freely."

"And you somehow think that would be a _bad_ thing?" Sailor Jupiter balked.

"Not just a bad thing. The _worst_ thing." Jadeite clarified, "I have lived three different lives; each time trying with all my strength to be what my chosen leader wanted me to be, following rules that other people set for me." Jadeite stared menacingly at Sailor Moon, "I will not follow you. I will not follow _anyone_."

"You don't have to follow me like a soldier on a battlefield to live a good life, Jadeite." Sailor Moon told him gently, remembering that his experience with humanity was… limited, "You can still fight for justice and—"

She barely got the word out when Jadeite stole it from her, "Justice again?" he hissed, "There is no justice, Sailor Moon. There is no love. No peace. No hate. Nothing." He stalked over to her, standing toe-to-toe with the Senshi, "You cling to childish notions of right and wrong believing it's for the best because that's what your parents taught you."

He backed up a step and beat his chest with both palms, "I am a free man, Sailor Moon. _Free_. I have free will to do as I please."

"I would never stop anyone from making their own decisions, Jadeite." Sailor Moon replied, insulted.

"No." Jadeite sneered at her, "But you would be the first to stand in their way if their decisions ran counter to your gospel of love and justice."

"Right and wrong are absolutes, Jadeite." Mercurity informed him, "You can't challenge that."

"I can and I will." Jadeite assured her, "I thought you were the smart one." If any wound was dealt to her pride, Ami didn't show it, "Your sense of morality is a concept only; there is no empirical evidence to back it up." He made a motion with his hands as if weighing some invisible quantity, "Is good better than evil? Is it _really_? Can you make such a claim?"

"It's not a math problem." Mamoru argued, "It's human nature."

"Human nature is a matter of choice." Jadeite agreed and stomped forward a step, "I am not good and I am not evil; I am a creature of choice and I will not live in fear because my choices might rub you the wrong way." He continued, "I will not live in a world where I must constantly watch over my shoulder for police, or government, or the Senshi to step in and slap my wrist because I was a_ bad boy._"

"People can't just do whatever they want all the time, Jadeite. It would be anarchy." Sailor Mercury tried to explain, "It would be complete chaos."

"Chaos." Sailor Mars growled in sudden understanding, "So. You really haven't changed at all, have you?"

"Hmm?" Jadeite wordlessly asked.

"You're still just a pawn." Sailor Mars brutalized him, "You're still an agent of Chaos, just as you always were. She's pulling your strings." She narrowed her intense violet gaze, "You just eliminated the middle man."

"That's a lovely notion." Jadeite cocked his head to one side, "But I could have sworn that Chaos was sealed away inside the cauldron at the heart of the galaxy."

Sailor Moon let out the tiniest squeak of a gasp and regretted it immediately.

"Did you think I just materialized here at the beginning of our conversation?" Jadeite snickered, "I've been _home_ for some time now. I've been catching up on all the daring exploits of the Sailor Senshi." He shook his head in mock sorrow, "Sailor Galaxia… that was a tough one."

"You are way out of line now, buddy." Sailor Jupiter snapped and her knuckles cracked in fists at her sides.

"I _chose_ to save Chaos." Sailor Moon turned Jadeite's argument around on him, "I _chose_ to show mercy, even to a creature that can't comprehend what mercy and compassion are."

"And you left the door open for Chaos to continue Her war against the order of the galaxy." Jadeite tisked.

"If you're the best She can manage these days, I don't think we'll need to worry." Sailor Venus added her two cents.

"Chaos doesn't control me, Sailor Senshi." Jadeite informed them, angered and insulted at the notion, "It would be more apt to say that I control Chaos."

"Sailor Galaxia tried to do the same thing." Sailor Moon warned, "And that didn't end well."

"Sailor Galaxia didn't have _this_." Jadeite revealed.

Jadeite passed his palms over one another and a spark lit the air between them as a shape emerged from nothing: an obsidian black multifaceted crystal in the shape of a spike, roughly the size of a spear-head. It crackled with a red inner light as it hovered inches above Jadeite's outstretched hand. It was instantly clear that the talisman was powerful as energy coursed off of it in wave after terrifying wave.

"It would have been difficult for me to track Chaos down." Jadeite laughed as his eyes fell on the crystal, "I would have had to wait until She manifested in some new form, but you bottled her up nice and neat at the center of the galaxy."

"Jadeite, what have you done?" Sailor Moon asked breathlessly.

"Within this crystal is the essence of Chaos." Jadeite replied, "Not simply an artifact endowed with Her power, but a cage for the creature itself." Jadeite raised the crystal higher so that none of the Senshi would dare miss a gleaming facet, "Within this prison Chaos cannot exert Her will, but I can direct Her power."

"This is beyond reckless." Mars chastised, "You have no idea what sort of forces you're playing with."

"Actually." Jadeite grimly replied, "I do."

He passed his hands over the crystal in opposite directions and the pulsating vessel vanished again. He leaned back on his heels and smirked.

"Let me tell you a story." He began, "About how I was floating through nothingness, a black void all around me."

"We've heard this story." Venus tried to interrupt and was ignored.

"Suddenly, one day, or perhaps it was one decade, or century… time was funny out there." Jadeite contemplated, "I suddenly saw a light shining far in the distance. I thought it was the first vestige of madness creeping in, teasing me with a false hope, but the light became brighter and brighter as I moved closer toward it."

"The pinprick of light soon filled my whole vision and I realized I was falling towards a star." He looked ecstatic, "I was terrified and anxious, but also relieved. My crystal prison surely couldn't withstand the heat of a sun and death would bring release from my constant torment." He waved a hand in front of his face, "But then something got in my way. A giant ball of dirt. A _planet_."

He continued, "As the crystal plummeted through the atmosphere it caught fire, splintered, and finally broke apart leaving me in a fiery free-fall. I survived the fall only thanks to the little sliver of the Dark Kingdom's power left in my body, locked away inside the crystal along with me. I don't know how I pulled myself out of the crater, but when I finally came to I was wandering half-blind, burned, and dying of thirst in a desert."

"The first time I saw people I honestly thought they weren't real. They were traveling across the desert in a caravan of wagons and camels, wrapped in brightly colored robes and turbans and speaking in a language I'd never heard on Earth." Jadeite made a speaking motion with his hand and shook his head, "It took me weeks, months even to begin to understand them, but as I traveled and healed I learned of the strange land and the omen my fall from the heavens apparently foretold."

"The omen?" Mars was doubtful, but intrigued.

"Their culture believed that their end times, their apocalypse, would be heralded by a falling star." Jadeite explained, "I soon learned that the world I fell upon, called Sanctuary, was rife with legends, ancient riddles and obtuse prophecy."

"Sanctuary?" Sailor Mercury lifted her brow at the name.

"A world of magic situated somewhere between this universe and whatever lies beyond." Jadeite told them almost fondly, "A place where angels and demons fight for dominance over creation and where men have the potential to rise up and claim dominance for themselves."

"A fairy tale, in other words." Jupiter shrugged off the story.

"A _living_ fairy tale." Jadeite corrected her, "A place where I learned ancient ways of magic from great sorcerers who fashioned enchanted stones to trap the souls of the most powerful demons." Jadeite waved his hands and his black crystal materialized again, "This crystal is one of those _soulstones_; a vessel from another realm, powerful enough to contain the raging spirit of Chaos."

"You know I'm not going to let you do as you please, Jadeite." Sailor Moon promised him, "Regardless of what magic spells you learned, regardless of having Chaos imprisoned in a crystal."

"Yes, I know." Jadeite verified.

"So now what?" Sailor Moon asked after long pause, searching her old antagonist's eyes for any shred of what might come next, "Do we fight?"

"Fight?" Jadeite asked in a laugh, "No, Sailor Moon. This isn't an argument you win with a battle. I've fought you many a time and lost. I can tell you exactly what would happen." Jadeite paced as he spoke, "We would unleash our powers against each other. The Senshi would attack me in turn and after a time I would strike them down, one by one, until only you remained, Sailor Moon." He glanced at the black soul stone in his hand, "And then you'd call upon _your_ crystal to see if it could stand up to mine."

"It doesn't have to come to that." Sailor Moon tried desperately.

"But if it did, what would be the outcome?" Jadeite wondered for both of them, "I hold the eternal power of Chaos in my hands. Your love for your fallen comrades would fuel your Silver Crystal. Your Man there…" he gestured at Tuxedo Mask, "He would lend you his power in desperation, hoping to overwhelm me." He shrugged, "You might beat me back for a time, but the battle wouldn't end. It would drag on and on forever." He laid a caressing hand on the sharp edge of the stone, "We would destroy the universe in our stalemate."

"Jadeite…" Sailor Moon was hesitant to speak as she was now running out of options.

"But it _won't_ come to that." Jadeite threatened and promised in the same word, "I'm not fool enough to pick a fight like that and I'm betting that you aren't either."

"What are you getting at?" Mamoru demanded.

"I'm going to give you a choice." Jadeite presented his terms and flung his right arm out at his side.

Instantly a hole opened in the very air; a glowing blue portal which swirled and flickered with magical light. It was utterly black inside the void, but the Senshi heard sounds seeping from the portal: the rustle of leaves, the creak of a wagon wheel, the ringing of steel being pounded at an anvil…

"Another portal?" Sailor Venus asked unimpressed.

"This portal leads to the world of Sanctuary." Jadeite explained and as he spoke the blackness within the portal revealed fleeting images of a similar, if unfamiliar world, "It's a primitive place, still using swords and spears to fight wars, but with its own history and its own varied cultures, religions, magics, and philosophies. The races of men who live there are deeply spiritual, superstitious, and contain an immense hidden potential that could reshape their place in the world."

"And?" Sailor Mars asked expecting the eventual twist to the tale.

"Their world is teetering on the brink of disaster." Jadeite revealed, "There is evil there; _true_ evil as I define it: unfocused, pointless destruction. Hatred without cause. Terror for the sake of terror itself. Demons ravage the lands and whisper in the ears of kings while angels endlessly fret and make empty, erudite speeches from their gilded halls. The people suffer terribly."

"Why are you telling us this?" Sailor Mercury demanded.

Jadeite answered by raising the black soulstone towards the portal. The artifact glowed with a hellish red light and pulsated furiously. A burst of unnatural energy pushed the Senshi back and they all felt an impossible buildup of power from within the heart of the crystal.

"What are you doing?" Sailor Moon asked frantically.

"I will unleash the full power of Chaos through the portal and destroy all of Sanctuary in one fell swoop." Jadeite answered easily.

A shocked silence answered him.

"Y- you…" Sailor Moon finally stuttered, "You can't!"

"I _can_." He stressed with a maniacal grin, "That is the true power of freedom, Sailor Moon. I can do _whatever_ I want!"

"This is a trick." Mamoru deduced.

"Well, that's the gamble, isn't it?" Jadeite countered, "It might be a trick. But why would I lie? I could have fashioned a much less elaborate tale to make my point."

"I still don't believe—" Sailor Jupiter tried to argue.

"Enough stalling!" Jadeite bellowed and a stray arc of energy seared the air between the soulstone and the portal.

"Please stop!" Sailor Moon pleaded with her old adversary, "Jadeite, please!"

"Beg, yes! That'll help." Jadeite growled and the crystal flared brightly in his palm, "_This_ is your choice, Sailor Moon: You can stay here; I'll destroy Sanctuary along with every man, woman and child and we can commence our useless battle, _or_ you can take your friends through the portal and see how well your love and justice serve you in world beset by the lords of Hell."

"I won't abandon the Earth to your evil." Sailor Moon pledged.

"So you condemn this world of innocents to destruction?" Jadeite asked and the soulstone glowed brightly as he turned towards the portal, "So be it."

"No! _**WAIT!**_" Sailor Moon screamed and threw out her arm towards the stone. She was violently forced back by the energy beating off of it.

"You can't have it both ways, Sailor Moon!" Jadeite harshly reminded her, "Make your choice."

"Jadeite…" Sailor Moon was on the verge of tears, the unfair decision, while abrupt, was tearing at her, "I can't choose…"

"You must." He stressed, "Here, I'll make it easier for you."

Jadeite moved swiftly, faster than they remembered him ever moving. He grasped Sailor Moon's forearm with one hand and snapped the fingers on his free hand in the same motion. Immediately the portal began to emit a high-pitched whine and a furious wind began to blow throughout the building. The portal became electrified and began pulling everything not fastened down into it. The Senshi were unprepared for the sudden suction and one by one they were pulled, flailing helplessly, into the swirling portal.

"Usako!" Mamoru managed to cry out just as he was pulled beyond the threshold in a flash of light.

"NO!" Sailor Moon shrieked and fell to her knees.

Were it not for Jadeite's grip on her arm she would have been pulled in as well. He smiled contentedly, snapped his fingers again, and the room fell still and silent. He released his hold and took a step back as Sailor Moon slowly pieced her composure back together.

"How's that?" he asked glibly.

"You…" she stammered as her hands balled into fists. She turned her gaze upward, rage blazing in her eyes, "You _bastard!_"

"The choice, Sailor Moon." Jadeite would not relent.

"I.. will…" Sailor Moon spoke slowly and carefully. She stole his gaze once more, "I will find a way to bring my friends home and when I do, you _will_ answer for this."

Seeming satisfied Jadeite smiled and took a step back and gesturing with his outstretched arm, soulstone flickering madly, towards the portal. Sailor Moon drew in a breath and cautiously stalked across the steel lattice floor towards the pulsating blue hole in reality.

"Good luck, Sailor Moon." Jadeite wished her in what seemed genuine sincerity, "Perhaps if you return it will be with a new perspective."

She didn't want to dignify his sleight with another word so she just kept moving without even looking back. She stepped into the impenetrable blackness of the portal leaving the Earth to its fate which was now as uncertain as her own.


End file.
